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Sunday, November 20, 2011

Yesterday we wanted some appetizer-snacky-game type food to munch on while we watched UFC-139. I came up with two things - tamale bites and fried stuffed black olives.

I wasn't sure how either would work since

A) I didn't know if the tamale dough would all cook solid into an impenetrable ball of concrete and

B) I had no recipe for either of these, I was just winging it.

When I first bit through the warm, crunchy crust and it gave way to the soft tamale and savory pork inside I knew I was on to something. And the olives were down right addicting.

The olives were just large pitted black olive stuffed with a thin sliver of garlic, a small piece of pepper jack cheese, and half a leaf of cilantro.

To get the breading to stick, we found you had to dip them in egg wash first, then flour, back to egg wash, and then in panko crumbs. Then just a quick 30 second swim in a 350f deep fryer. Season lightly with salt just as they come out and they are done.

Typical 3 station breading set up - flour, egg, crumbs.

For the tamale bites, I simply took leftover cooked tamales and cut each into 4 pieces. I rolled each in flour (masa harina), egg wash, and then panko bread crumbs before deep frying them at 350f until golden, about 1 minute.

Both of these sound delicious, Chris. I can't believe you thought of breading olives! I have never even heard or imagined something like that. I bet it really would be addicting that way. I'm off to search your site now for Kentucky Hot Browns.